Dystopian Dance Party

Blog

  • Jheri Curl June: Yarbrough & Peoples’ “Guilty”

    In many ways, Yarbrough & Peoples offer a much more pleasant male-female music partnership dynamic than earlier Jheri Curl June inductees René & Angela. Calvin Leon Yarbrough and Alisa Delois Peoples were childhood friends who eventually became a musical duo. After being discovered by the Gap Band and Lonnie Simmons, they recorded their best-known hit, “Don’t Stop the Music,” in 1980. They continued to record and tour as a duo until 1987, when they called it quits–to be married. That’s right: there were no bruised ribs or legal battles, and in fact Calvin and Alisa continue to write, produce, perform, and appear in musicals together. Isn’t that sweet?

    One of Yarbrough & Peoples’ last singles would be “Guilty,” from the 1986 album of the same name. The song is a smooth, funky groove, recorded as an answer to Alexander O’Neal‘s hit song “Innocent“–which, if you compare the two songs, is very evident, not only in the echoing titles but also in the very similar synth lines and melodies.

    The music video is just over four minutes of pure camp, with Alisa Peoples working at a used car lot alongside two crooked used car salesmen with cigars and cowboy hats:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wtPXdPyvrE

    After she fails to dissuade a customer (Calvin Yarbrough) from buying a good car–probably because she was too mesmerized by that moustache, gap-tooth, and dimple triple threat–the shady cowboy hat salesmen come over and talk Yarbrough into buying a car that is a complete piece of shit by distracting him with cheerleaders…? Apparently titties and pom poms are enough to make this guy ignore the fact that there are visible cracks in the windshield, because he buys the car only to immediately realize his mistake when the engine doesn’t start and begins smoking. But, PLOT TWIST, Yarbrough is actually an undercover cop, and the “Guilty Bros” are arrested. Fair enough, but I still think that Yarbrough is guilty of being a moron for buying that car.

    Those Dimples though...
    Those Dimples, though…  © Total Experience Records

    We’ll be back tomorrow with more great jheri curl music from the latter half of the ’80s. Spotify and YouTube playlists are below:

    (more…)

  • Jheri Curl June: Wendy & Lisa’s “Satisfaction”

    In our upcoming podcast (posting Monday!) on the musical side projects of Prince, we discuss the weird kind of Stockholm Syndrome that seems to have gripped everyone who collaborated with the little guy. André Cymone, Morris Day, Vanity: all fought tooth and nail to get out from under Prince’s lacy-gloved iron fist; then, when they were finally free, they started making their own music–which sounded exactly like Prince. Wendy (Melvoin) and Lisa (Coleman), Prince’s right- and left-hand women in the Revolution, were no exception; and on “Satisfaction,” from their 1989 sophomore album Fruit at the Bottom, they even enlisted two more escapees from the purple prison in Wendy’s sister Susannah and former Time guitarist Jesse Johnson.

    Coming out as it did at the beginning of a troubled era for His Royal Badness, “Satisfaction” has the distinction of sounding more like Prince than a lot of actual Prince songs from the same period. And, while its booming live drums and touches of acoustic piano and guitar (!) belie its origins as a post-jheri curl track, it still has enough vestigial Minneapolis electro-funk in it to qualify for this month’s festivities. Check it out below, along with a U.K. morning television interview–conducted, judging by their hairstyles, mere seconds after Wendy and Lisa had stuck their fingers in a light socket next to an exploding can of Aquanet–with a host who has no idea how lesbians work:

    See you next week! Spotify and YouTube playlists after the jump.

    (more…)

  • Jheri Curl June: Samantha Fox’s “Naughty Girls Need Love Too”

    Samantha Fox began her career as a glamour model in 1983, but by the mid-’80s had made the natural transition to pop music. After the success of her debut album, 1985’s Touch Me, Fox returned to the studio to record her self-titled sophomore album, which further expands on her bad girl image.

    Fox enlisted the help of prolific producers, R&B/freestyle group, professional swole clowns, photobombers, and Jheri Curl June alumni Full Force to write and produce “Naughty Girls (Need Love Too).” Of course, in typical Full Force fashion, the group insisted on not just writing, producing, and singing backup for the song, but also appearing in the video:

    We’ll be back tomorrow for one more day of woman-fronted jheri curl music. Spotify and YouTube playlists below:

    (more…)

  • Jheri Curl June: Starpoint’s “Object of My Desire”

    I’ll be the first to admit: when it comes to jheri curl music’s holy trinity of “Star” groups (Midnight Star, Starpoint, and Atlantic Starr, in case you had to ask), Starpoint is probably my least favorite. But now that I live in the D.C./Maryland/Virginia metro area, I feel that it’s important to give them some love–if only because the original lineup hails from the Maryland state capitol of Annapolis.

    Not that geography is the only thing Starpoint have going for them. I mean, just listen to “Object of My Desire,” their sole Top 40 hit from their 1985 album Restless: it’s an undeniable jam, pairing a vintage Jheri Curl synth line with a freestyle-influenced sequencer pattern and frontwoman Renée Diggs’ soulful lead vocals. And if that isn’t enough to convince you, then take a look at the boss jheri-curl-and-shades combo keyboardist/keytarist George Phillips is sporting in the photo above (far right). Finally, check out the music video below, and watch George’s brother Ernesto randomly mime an epileptic seizure at the beginning of his guitar solo at 3:39:

    https://youtu.be/kubHAfomIm8

    You know what? On second thought, I take it back; Starpoint might actually be my favorite “Star” group in the Jheri-Curl catalogue.

    We’ll be back tomorrow with more woman-fronted jheri curl music; in the meantime, keep up with the Spotify and YouTube playlists after the jump.

    (more…)

  • Jheri Curl June: Tina Turner’s “Better Be Good to Me”

    After four solo albums–two after her split with musical partner and husband Ike Turner–1984’s Private Dancer would solidify Tina Turner as a solo act and superstar. It also proved to be the debut of the fright wig that would become a signature style for Ms. Turner through the rest of the 1980s.

    The Tina Turner Hair. Screenshot from the What's Love Got to Do With it video
    The Tina Turner Hair; © Capitol Records.

    Tina’s cover of the short-lived New York City-based group Spider’s song “Better Be Good to Me” stayed true to the original’s basic pop/rock sound, but updated it with some slick mid-’80s Jheri-Curl flair. Now, enjoy watching Tina Turner strut around in a full leather bodysuit and have a weird hip-thrusting standoff with that guy from the Fixx:

    Spotify and YouTube playlists after the jump:

    (more…)

  • Jheri Curl June: Patrice Rushen’s “Breakout!”

    Like several of the other artists we’ve been discussing this year, vocalist and keyboardist Patrice Rushen had a significant career before jheri curl (B.J.C.). She recorded three well-regarded albums for jazz imprint Prestige Records in the 1970s before switching over to R&B with 1978’s Patrice—a move that, perhaps understandably, alienated much of her existing fanbase. That same year, Rushen played keyboards (uncredited) on For You, the debut album by Prince–which means, in a way, that she was present for the birth of jheri curl music/the Minneapolis Sound. Prince returned the favor by writing two songs for Rushen: the first, “I Feel for You,” for her to sing (she passed); the second, “I Wanna Be Your Lover,” because he genuinely wanted to bone her (she passed on that, too).

    Rushen released her eighth album, Straight from the Heart, in 1982: her most successful to date, largely on the strength of hit single “Forget Me Nots.” Because we’re willful obscurantists here on Dystopian Dance Party, however–or maybe just because we’ve already spent the last 20 years of our lives trying to get the Men in Black song out of our heads–here’s the less-well-remembered “Breakout!,” a frothy lite-JCM concoction with a bit of a 1980s Stevie Wonder feel. I’m pretty sure the music video below is about media oversaturation or urban desperation or something, but I’m mostly enamored by its opening moments: a full 25 seconds of Rushen in closeup bobbing back and forth to the music and making awkward eye contact with the camera, intercut with shots of newspapers hitting the floor. Truly, the early music video was an art form all its own.

    We’ll be back tomorrow with more tracks from the women of jheri curl music. Keep up with the Spotify and YouTube playlists below:

    (more…)

  • Jheri Curl June: René & Angela’s “I’ll Be Good”

    Musical duo René Moore and Angela Winbush had released three albums before they finally reached commercial success with 1985’s A Street Called Desire, which contained the hit single “I’ll Be Good.” Sadly, René and Angela were not good to each other, and ended their nine-year musical partnership in a mess of legal battles and physical abuse less than a year after the release of A Street Called Desire. It definitely makes “I’ll Be Good” a lot less charming when you consider that Moore allegedly broke and/or bruised Winbush’s ribs in a violent backstage altercation; the song (and that tiger-print blazer) are still hot as hell, though.

    Both René and Angela would go on to have successful solo careers, with René releasing two albums as well as writing and producing for Michael Jackson. Angela would go on to produce and write for yesterday’s JCJ subject, the Isley Brothers. Ronald Isley subsequently became Angela Winbush’s manager and the pair were eventually married, but divorced in 2001–which, to be fair, is still a happier ending than the René & Angela story.

    We’ll be back next week with another week dedicated to the women of jheri curl music. Until then, catch up with our Spotify and YouTube playlists after the jump.

    (more…)

  • Jheri Curl June: The Isley Brothers’ “Between the Sheets”

    Yesterday we talked about the O.G. Bootsy Collins‘ dabble in Jheri Curl. Today we’re looking at yet another Ohio group with a decades-spanning career, the Isley Brothers.

    Formed in 1954 as a gospel group, the Isley Brothers had been making hits since the ’60s, successfully adapting their sound to suit the changing musical scenes. By the ’80s, it was only natural that they would incorporate the disco, quiet storm, pop, and R&B sounds that made up jheri curl music.

    The brothers’ 1983 hit “Between the Sheets” was composed as a direct response to Marvin Gaye‘s hit from the previous year, “Sexual Healing,” in what appears to have been a weird battle of one-upsmanship over who could make the best panty-dropper. And for my panties, the Isleys definitely won this one. Look, it just doesn’t get any smoother than “Between the Sheets.” You’ve got the bassline that hits you right between the legs, Ronald Isley’s breathy falsetto all up in your ear–for Chrissakes, the picture on the album cover is a closeup of peach-colored silk sheets with a red rose:

    © T-Neck Records
    © T-Neck Records

    If you’re not already totally nude and having a sexual fantasy by the time the beat switches up, allow me to help with some imagery: a dude slow thrusting and dripping sweat and jheri curl juice all on the pillow, flowing down the satin sheets and coating your naked body with activator and body fluids. You’re welcome.

    Spotify and YouTube playlists below:

    (more…)

  • Jheri Curl June: Bootsy’s Rubber Band’s “Body Slam”

    When it comes to jheri curl music, Bootsy Collins probably isn’t the first name that comes to anyone’s mind. In fact, he and the rest of the Parliament–Funkadelic cohort were practically the antithesis of the Jheri-Curl ethos: their aesthetic was gritty, not glossy; psychedelic posters and underground comix, not neon and Patrick Nagel; weed and acid, not champagne and cocaine; unapologetically nappy, not permed and activated. But by the early 1980s, Bootsy saw the winds were changing, and gamely incorporated icy synths and sequencers into his trunk-rattling P-Funk sound.

    And, for the most part, the results were as awkward as might be expected. Bootsy’s 1982 album The One Giveth, the Count Taketh Away had its moments, but it wasn’t up to the standards of his work with the Rubber Band in the late ’70s; its use of polished, “modern”-sounding ’80s R&B markers–like the members of Midnight Star, who contributed backing vocals–felt more than a little shoehorned into Bootsy’s raw, “uncut” brand of funk. But have no dear, my fear: Bootsy had at least one bona fide jheri-curl classic up his sleeve in 1982, in the form of the 12″-only release “Body Slam.”

    What’s most remarkable about “Body Slam” is that it’s effectively an extended de/reconstruction of one of The One Giveth‘s weakest tracks: the manic, tiresome, yet mercifully short “Countracula (This One’s for You).” Bootsy salvages it by taking out the shrill call-and-response vocals from Godmama (sorry, ladies) and axing the whole “Countracula” conceit, giving the groove room to breathe and stretching out with some clean, yet indelibly funky bass solos and a muted chicken-scratch guitar riff straight out of Prince‘s Controversy album. If “Countracula” is the sound of an elder statesman of the funk taking a moment to play in the young upstarts’ toybox and not quite grasping how the parts fit together, then “Body Slam” is the sound of that same master coming back, getting his chops up, and showing them all how it’s done.

    Not surprisingly, “Body Slam” was a highlight of Bootsy’s shows on the 1983 Atomic Dog Tour with his longtime mentor and bandleader George Clinton. The sound quality isn’t great, but check out the video below for an extended jam on the song from their Washington, D.C. gig, featuring some generation-spanning synth work by the incredible Bernie Worrell.

    And of course, check below the jump for this and other tracks on our growing Spotify and YouTube playlists. I’m taking the rest of the week off to focus on my other blog; Callie will be back tomorrow and Friday for more Jheri Curl June.

    (more…)

  • Jheri Curl June Special: L.A. Reid

    If you’re a regular Jheri Curl June reader, then you should already know that the first week of June holds special signifance in jheri curl music history. As we noted back in our very first Jheri Curl June Special of 2014, Prince’s birthday falls at the end of the week, on June 7. Just a day earlier, there’s also the birthday of megaproducer and Prince’s fellow Minneapolitan, James “Jimmy Jam” Harris III: the subject, with musical life partner Terry Lewis, of our 2015 JCJ Special. And if all that wasn’t enough, on the very same date as Prince, another Midwestern Jheri Curl architect was born in 1956: Cincinnati, Ohio’s own Antonio “L.A.” Reid.

    With all due respect to Mr. Reid–who, in my defense, has so much money that I sincerely doubt he cares–there’s a reason why we waited three years to enshrine him in the Jheri Curl June Hall of Fame. If, as I suggested last year, Prince was Jheri Curl’s principal architect and Jam and Lewis its most successful engineers, then Reid and his longtime colleague Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds were more like JCM’s property developers, building on the blueprints of the Minneapolis Sound to considerable success without ever really innovating on the formula. When we think about L.A. and Babyface, we think about…well, LaFace, a label synonymous with early ’90s R&B. Their achievements in the previous decade were decidedly more modest.

    But that doesn’t mean they weren’t, in their own way, important. Dystopian Dance Party has love for Reid’s and Edmonds’ early band the Deele, and last year we highlighted one of the pair’s late-era jheri curl productions, “Rock Steady” by the Whispers. There’s plenty of room in pop music for songs that refine and iterate on existing formulas, rather than reinventing the wheel; this is especially true in jheri curl music, a genre that existed pretty much exclusively as a vehicle for up-and-coming artists to bite from Prince and Michael Jackson. This, then, is our tribute to L.A. Reid: maybe not the most innovative of artists, but a shrewd businessman, a talented musician, and a gifted producer and songwriter who could, let’s not forget, buy and sell all of us in a second.

    (more…)